PeterMollenburg wrote: I actually preferred Destinos. It's a very decent course, so much so that I often rate it my favourite all round comprehensive course in any language. I just found FIA's immersion approach not quite as smooth as the Destinos approach (more relaxed on the immersion thing).
Thanks for the long post and all that information. I've seen approximately 20 episodes from Destinos, and for me it felt like a cross between a telenovela and a graded reader. There was no instructor, and it contained much more immersion than 'teaching'. Maybe my problem was that I didn't use the textbook at all (I don't even have it), and after a while I thought I'd benefit more from normal native materials. But I remember it was pleasant until I reached a relatively high level that opened more possibilities. I prefer the FIA videos because the instruction (at least the gist) is already there in the videos. Destinos from this aspect didn't seem complete or systematic for me. But I see your point and I agree that it was more relaxed.
Nowadays it's crazy to look at these materials. I don't know either what this Annenberg project is, but I remember I was shocked when the woman went from Mexico to Spain, and they even shot some scenes inside the Prado. That was a really good episode with all that information about the paintings. For me the cultural aspect of a course is very important, and both FIA and Destinos are fantastic from this point of view. I'm watching Dix pour cent on Netflix, and it's amazing that FIA could present the same thing, the typical costumes, gestures, behaviours, lifestyles in the form of a language course, before the internet. I'd really like to know how much money went into these projects.